The present invention relates to the field of user interfaces, more particularly to using an alternate user interface in place of a drag and drop interface for rearranging configurable Web page components.
Drag and drop interfaces are commonly used for many actions in computing sessions. A drag and drop interface is an interface in which elements on the screen are movable to a different location. The user typically first uses a pointing device (such as a mouse, drawing tablet, or trackball) to “click” or select the item to move. When selecting the item to move, the user does not release the selection mechanism (e.g., a mouse button) until the item is moved to the desired place. The most common example can be users dragging and dropping files to different locations in an operating system. Moving the files to different locations can trigger file operations such as copying, moving, or deleting (when moved to a special location such as a trash/recycle bin). Drag and drop operations are also used to configure components of a Web page.
Drag and drop interfaces can be troublesome for some users to use, such as those with visual or motor skill impairments. For a visually impaired user, it can be difficult to keep a visual map in mind of where moveable components are physically located and where they may be relocated. For a user with motor skill impairments, it may be difficult or impossible to perform the combined operations of moving the mouse and clicking the appropriate buttons.